Newcastle on, Bangor & Kempton inspect This afternoon's meeting at Newcastle will go ahead as scheduled after a relatively mild night at Gosforth Park. Clerk of the course James Armstrong initially called an inspection for 8am on Thursday morning and although the track remained unraceable at that stage, he was keen to give the fixture every chance and announced a further check for this morning. He has now been able to give the meeting the green light earlier than anticipated. Armstrong said: "Most of the frost was out of the ground last night and as it only got down to 2C overnight, so we are now raceable. "We had a millimetre of drizzle overnight and the ground is going to be hard work, but we are racing, which is the main thing." Officials at Bangor have announced a second morning inspection for 10am ahead of this afternoon's schedule fixture. Clerk of the course Andrew Morris did not anticipate any problems on Thursday, but was forced to announce an impromptu inspection for 8am earlier this morning following a much colder night than predicted at the Welsh circuit. Temperatures are now on the rise and Morris is keen to give the meeting every chance. He said: "We're going to have another look at 10am. "Temperatures are steadily rising and the sun is just getting up. "We're forecast temperatures of 4C or 5C later on today and plenty of sunshine, so it makes sense to look again later in the morning." This afternoon's meeting at Kempton is also subject to a second morning inspection at 10am. Clerk of the course Barney Clifford announced an initial inspection for 8am, but that check has proved inconclusive. Although temperatures did not dip below freezing overnight, they have fallen at daybreak and Clifford admits some improvement is needed for racing to get the go-ahead. Clifford said: "Luckily we didn't get below zero overnight, otherwise I think we'd have been frozen solid. "The temperatures have just dipped to minus 1C this morning, with with a wind chill factor of minus 4C. "There is no frost in the ground as such, it's just crispy on top. "I wouldn't be 100 per cent happy to race as we stand, but we'll give it every chance and I'm optimistic."
